Georgia has a critical shortage of eye doctors

ATLANTA, GA — Getting your eyes checked in Georgia may not be as easy as you think.

Beth Earhart, with the Georgia Lions’ Lighthouse Foundation says her agency’s 2025 vision care report card shows that Georgia has a severe shortage of optometrists.

Earhart says the problem is even bigger in rural areas of Georgia. About a third of rural counties in Georgia have either no, one, or two optometrists for the entire county.

She says there are 24 optometry schools in the US. The closest ones are in Alabama or South Carolina.

Vision impairment is fundamentally linked to academic achievement, social and behavioral skills, and employment.